


Her Job

by Lola_McGee



Series: Her Self [3]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Also! Happy Birthday Audrey Hepburn!, Because ur character study is only srs if u swear, But I can't not, Character Study, Do I think all the ladies in Supergirl are Queer?, Explicit Language, F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Jess the Secretary Is Important, Jess the Secretary is Queer, Not angsty, She works harder than anyone else, Unrelated to anything, Very brief references to death, let me know if you want me to tag something else, like always, probably, quite a bit of it, why yes, yes i do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 02:02:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10821435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lola_McGee/pseuds/Lola_McGee
Summary: A character study on Jess the Secretary, noted workaholic.





	Her Job

**Author's Note:**

> Jess the Secretary is so important y'all. I couldn't help myself. She deserves to be happy. Jess is the fandom.
> 
> Once again, credit to this particular version of Jess goes to wtfoctagon's Sunlit Honey and Lavender Sunsets (link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8780881/chapters/20128942), and while I could try to identify all the ways that that Jess inspired this one, I probably would forget some. So most obvious credit goes to Jess' last name being Hoang, and her troubled brother. Anyway read it! It's really good!
> 
> Like usual, unbetaed and lightly edited, since I'm lazy like that.
> 
> Less angst than usual, but not really happy. Just a psychological exploration of Jess.

The first time that someone suggested that Jessica Hoang only excelled at her job because she wanted to fuck her boss, she saw red for hours. 

(She was 17 at the time, bussing tables at a small 24/7 diner at all sorts of odd hours, trying to reduce the burden of her tuition at Gotham City Community College. After every shift, she’d return to her apartment shared with three other students, fingers aching, calves burning, sight fuzzy as she’s barely able to keep her eyes open. And, even to this day, after every shift, Jess makes herself a cup of chamomile tea, and falls into a dreamless sleep.)

(The suggestion was made by one of the waitresses; a fellow GCCC student, only two years older than Jess. Blonde, blue eyed, beautiful. She became an instant symbol for Jess; something to instinctively dislike. It took her over seven years to come around to anyone who was beautiful, blonde and blue eyed. She always knew it was irrational; a taste aversion, but for a certain kind of human being. She’s never really cares enough to challenge herself.) 

(The job ended when the owner was killed after some supervillain extravaganza breakout of Arkham. She never learned which one did it, and a week following his death, it became clear that no one was going to take his place. So, she stopped showing up, stopped hoping that it would be open, that she could get back to working. She never did find out if it closed down permanently.)

(She wonders what that waitress is doing now. If she could remember her name, she might look it up. As it is, she’s not sure she ever knew it.)

By the time that she was Lena Luthor’s right hand and loyal secretary, the insinuation no longer stung. If the rest of the world wanted to be fucking idiots, then that was their right. After all, it hadn’t been true at any of her other jobs, no matter how many people whispered it. It certainly wasn’t true with this job either.

(And there had been a lot of jobs in the four years between bussing and becoming Lena Luthor’s secretary. Too many odd jobs during college to count, and once she had her computer science degree; a brief stint repairing computers, especially software problems. She quit when her _boss_ that insinuated she had sexual proclivities toward him. That job never ended up on her résumé, and no one knows she ever had it.)

(At 20, she got, she _earned_ , a paid LuthorCorp internship, which she parlayed into an actual job with real benefits, working on the lower levels of LuthorCorp cybersecurity. And she was angling for a job as a project manager for one of the smaller scale projects when Lena _Fucking_ Luthor came down and offered her a job as her secretary. When Jess protested, saying she had no experience as an executive assistant but rather only in programming, software and hardware, she could see the glint in Lena’s eye before she let out her one word response. “Perfect.”)

(And, really, how was Jess going to say no?)

It’s not that she didn’t find any of her bosses attractive, no.

(The couple of months she worked at an Old Navy, for example, she had not just one, but two attractive supervisors. The first, a stocky, well built man with dark skin and an easy smile and a quick laugh. The second, a tall Latina who had a penchant for wearing shirts that would just barely show off her belly-button ring and for muttering to herself in rapid Spanish, often quick curses aimed at nothing in particular.)

(The less said about her aesthetic appreciation for Lena Luthor, the better. It’s not like she wants to sleep with her, or ever wanted to, after all. The closest she can come to it is saying that, if she had no idea who Lena Luthor was and had never met her, and suddenly found herself in a situation where an attractive individual who looked exactly like Lena Luthor said, in an appropriate setting, she wanted to sleep with Jess, and Jess was in the mood, then she would. The number of caveats and conditions gives Jess a headache, though. So she simply says, truthfully, that she does not want to fuck Lena Luthor.)

And it’s not that she doesn’t _care_ about anyone she works with. She always manages to make a few friends at each job; even if those relationships stretched the word friend thin. She never keeps up with most of them outside of work, and once she leaves her job to greener pastures, they’re left behind. Only a few become actual friends, individuals whom she exchanges emails and texts with. Individuals that she sees, does “lunches and brunches” with. Never dinner, though. Dinners belong to work or romantic partners.

(It’s true, though, that the only boss she makes friends with is Lena, and that was after years of working closely together. Well that and Jaz; who oversaw her internship. That one doesn't quite count, though, since she only made friends with them when she became an actual employee, and no longer worked directly underneath them. She still keeps up with Jaz, even if they did stay in the Metropolis branch, and left L-Corp shortly after the renaming.)

No, she didn’t want to fuck her boss; any of them. She just likes, has always liked, doing a good job. And this is a well known fact about Jessica Hoang. No one can accuse her of not enjoying the sensation of doing a good job; anyone who sees the small smirk of satisfaction when she perfectly completes a task can attest to it.

(She just likes working, and isn’t particularly happy when she has to stop. Even before Lena Luthor and trying to keep a whole multinational corporation afloat, she likes how work fulfills her, lets her be Jessica Hoang. Because Jessica Hoang is dedicated and loyal.)

(Work is a reminder that home is an overrated concept. So, really, the less time Jessica Hoang isn’t on call, is forced to not be available for her job, is forced to be home, the happier she is. Work can be her home, far removed from the cramped apartments that defined her life in Hong Kong, Gotham or Metropolis.)

Nor is her social life outside of work a big mystery. She dabbles with dating, even if her job comes first. She goes to events with friends, and takes time out of her busy schedule to catch lunch outside the office; even if she itches to go back to work the entire time, worry gnawing the back of her mind. Hell, she spends an evening or two at Game Night with Kara and Lena and the rest of their friends (but that comes much later; after she’s been well-established as Lena’s friend and confidante). She even discusses such things with her coworkers.

(She wonders, before she meets Kara, before she _learns_ , if this is how Superman or Supergirl feels. If they force themselves to sit through dates, even if they can hear or see trouble, know that they can help. To watch entire movies with friends, without a significant pause while they fly around doing whatever heroics are needed. If they let their friends know that their superhero job comes first; if their friends know. She never wonders that about her hometown hero, but Batman doesn’t seem the dating type. When she puts the pieces together regarding Bruce Wayne after a business trip to Gotham… well let’s say she is simultaneously surprised and absolutely expecting it.)

(Of course, when Kara comes bumbling into her life, when enough clues are laid out that she figures it out, and when she starts to hear murmurs of dinners interrupted with Lena. Well, she receives her answer. It’s slightly comforting, to know she isn’t alone. That, if superheroes can’t ever truly get themselves off the job, how is small, mortal Jess going to?)

So the accusation truly confuses her. Because the people who accuse her of it should know better. A secretary who wants to fuck her boss doesn’t rush said boss out of the door hours before she actually leaves. A secretary who wants to fuck her boss doesn’t return in the middle of the night because there was a security breach or minor server issue, and only tells her boss when she’s mandated to. It’s an open secret that Jess does all of these things, going by how often employees see Jess as some kind of unofficial channel; not just as a means to reach Lena, but about issues which directly impact L-Corp. And while Jess might complain and roll her eyes, but she gets the job done (or informs those who can) every time.

(A secretary who wants to fuck her boss doesn’t try, desperately, to keep her boss from knowing about the small, never used conference room she’s appropriated for sleep and a few sets of spare clothes. She’s certain Lena knows, but the only time Lena ever hinted to Jess about it, Jess made a thinly veiled threat to inform Kara of the lead-lined room that Lena uses for similar purposes. They never bring up the topic again. But, a few days later, Jess notices that the room is no longer designated as a conference room, but rather an office for Jess; despite the fact that she already has one.)

(Of course, if the rumours began when she started becoming friends with Lena, then she might begrudgingly admit that they make a certain amount of sense. After all, their relationship is perhaps unusual on the outside. It’s not often that a secretary will stare down the barrel of a gun for their boss. The fact that they become confidantes and friends, who act as a united front in their public lives, doesn’t help. But those rumours didn’t start after Lena, of course. They started long before.)

(No one, not even Lena, knows that her first feelings of companionship toward Lena come the day that Lex is arrested. She barely knew him, but she knows what it’s like to be disappointed by a brother; to still love that brother despite everything. Not the brother who once existed, but the brother who exists now.)

(Jess has no idea if this knowledge would stop the accusations, or only further encourage them.)

But no, she has to live with those accusations. Even her closest work relationships (outside of Lena, of course) sometimes give her looks or comments loaded with implications, if not outright explicit innuendo. Because, apparently, enjoying one’s job is a cardinal sin; weekends are the only salvageable part of the week. The rest is just a journey to those two days of not working, of busying oneself through friends, family or sloth, not productivity. A belief that Jess can never quite wrap her head around.

(She’s also always vaguely insulted when people assume that her attitude is caused by problems at home, or loneliness. Yes, she has a fucking awful relationship with her family, and especially her brother. Yes, her romantic relationships never pass the five month mark. But even before her brother became a victim to an epidemic, before her parents screamed for hours at each other, before her grandmother passed, she enjoyed work. She enjoyed the little chores she did around; when cleaning meant sweeping the floors and washing the dishes, not searching the ground for uncapped, used needles and sharp chips of broken plates. And while her romantic relationships only began after she started working long hours, the longest lasting failed, not because of her commitment to her work, but because her partner had to return home to take care of his ill mother. She still sends him cards and flowers whenever a holiday or important date rolls around.)

(She cherishes a memory of her hands kneading, trying to shape the dumplings before she has the fine motor control to do so well. She can still feel the stickiness of her own hands, before juices from the meats she worked with slickened them. Her eyes watchful of the pot, a stew being cooked slowly; watching for the first signs of it bubbling, of the stock potentially boiling over and splashing hot droplets over her arms. She didn’t feel an emptiness in her stomach, wasn’t counting the moments until the food was prepared. Her pace, slow and methodical, and her mind consumed by her task. The only emotion she is feeling is pure joy in the act of concentrating.)

(She remembers a slight feeling of disappointment, when the task was completed and she had no more to do; a feature that she is sure wasn’t an addition by her adult mind.)

So, no. No matter what other people say at literally every job she takes, Jessica Hoang does not want to fuck her boss, has never wanted to do so. She works harder and longer than anyone else, does her best at every task put in front of her, because that is what Jessica Hoang does. Jessica Hoang enjoys work. She enjoys the feeling of exhaustion when she pours herself a cup of chamomile, of drifting off to dreamless shores. It is who she is.

She loses herself in her work, loves doing so. After all, it’s the only time when she is Jessica Hoang, not a Jessica Hoang in waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, now that I've done Jess, I've done all the ladies of Supergirl that I feel really comfortable writing. Unless anyone has any suggestions, I'll probably do Alex next. I don't know who I'll do after Alex, if anyone.
> 
> Ummm... I hope you enjoyed this and the other works in the series so far! Kudos and comments make my day! Especially comments, since it's the only way to grow.


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